Balthazard assumes role as Dean of the School of Business

Pierre Balthazard, Ph.D., of Peoria, Ariz., began his duties as Dean of the School of Business at St. Bonaventure University in June. 

Balthazard has a successful record as a department coordinator and senior-level administrator within business schools at Arizona State University. Most recently he was executive director of the Center for Advancing Business through Information Technology at ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business, one of the top-ranked and largest business schools in the country.

Balthazard previously was associate director and senior fellow for the Center for Responsible Leadership, and director of graduate programs at the former School of Global Management and Leadership at ASU. He is also the principal investigator of the Leadership Neuroscience Project and a member of the EDGE Innovation Network.

“Dr. Balthazard brings a world of experience and insight to the office of the dean," said Michael J. Fischer, Ph.D., provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at St. Bonaventure. "We feel that he is uniquely qualified to build off the recent momentum that has arisen from our School of Business Campaign. He is the right person at the right time to lead this school."

Said Balthazard, "As a very important piece of the comprehensive university, I believe that St. Bonaventure’s School of Business seeks academic distinctiveness, enhanced student outcomes, a commitment to globalization, strengthening the environment for scholarly activity, and instilling a sense of community/social responsibility. As dean, my vision will be to achieve a level of undisputed and widely visible excellence that does justice to St. Bonaventure University as an institution, and to its faculty and students.”

Balthazard has authored more than 100 articles, chapters, psychometric instruments, and technical reports, with manuscripts appearing in The Leadership Quarterly, Personnel Psychology, MIS Quarterly, the Journal of Management Information Systems, Group Decision and Negotiation, and the Journal of Managerial Psychology.

Throughout his career, he has been involved in programs and projects that have earned more than $4 million in contracts/grants from sources such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Army Research Laboratory, Army Research Institute, the Department of Education, and the Center for the Professional Military Ethic based at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Balthazard’s research focuses on the design and investigation of individual, group, leadership, and organizational diagnosis instruments, systems that support collaboration, leadership development, and evidence-based processes across time and distance using technology. Most recently, he has been examining neuroscience as an alternative to traditional psychometric approaches to leadership assessment and leadership development. His research project has received global attention from top business publications around the world, including Business Week, Wall Street Journal, The Globe and Mail, The Times of London, and The Financial Times among others.

Balthazard received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and computer science from McGill University (Canada), and a master of science in information systems degree and joint Ph.D. degree in industrial engineering and management from the University of Arizona.

He succeeds the late Dr. John G. Watson, longtime Dean of St. Bonaventure's School of Business, who died in April of 2011. Since Dr. Watson's passing, the position has been staffed on an interim basis, first by Brian C. McAllister, then by Carol M. Fischer, Ph.D.